Mahesh Weerasinghe heads Kandy SC

By Shamzeer Jaleel 

Former Rajans rugby player Mahesh Weerasinghe will continue to head the Kandy Sports Club as its President for the fourth year running, while former Trinitian, Sujeewa Liyanage, will serve as the club’s Secretary, for the 2022/23 rugby season. 

These appointments, plus other committee members, were selected at their Annual General Meeting (AGM), which took place at their Club House at Nittawela on Saturday.

Kandy SC won the League 22 times during the last 27 years and the Clifford Cup 21 times in the 23 years of the Knockouts. This is a tremendous achievement for the only club playing ‘A’ division rugby out of Colombo. The discipline of the players, coaching staff, and rugby management plays a vital part along with their principal sponsor, Cargills.

Another unique record for Kandy SC is that they never lost a single game home or away under Fazil Marija’s coaching and Nigel Ratwatte’s leadership from 2020 to 2022.

Speaking to the Daily Mirror, trustee of the club and former Royal Scrum half, Malik Samarawickrema, said, “We named a stand in honour of Roshan (Weerarathne), who did yeoman service to our club since 2010. He has been an automatic choice for the national team both in sevens and XVs. He is one of the best scrum-half’s to represent Sri Lanka in the calibre of Tony Sirimanne, Denzil Kobbekaduwa and Roland Rodrigo. Roshan will continue to play club rugby in Ireland.”

“During this period, we had some outstanding players who retired, such as Shehan Pathirana, Jason Dissanayake, and Buvanaka Udangamuwa, who did immense service for the club. We want to bring young blood to the committee. Already we are working in this area and many will see new faces in the near future to take the club forward.”